The Official South Park Thread

[el badman]

I agree, this was just brilliant on all levels.

[Oznogrd]

3/3 for this half i'd say but this one didnt get as many real "holy shit thats funny" laughs out of me.

[Andrew]

Have to agree with you guys, a very good episode this week. Loved seeing the return of that old guy from the "Butters Very Own" and "Ass-pen" episodes.

[benji]

I've seen this one get a harsh response most other places. But I agree with the superior consensus here, felt like an older episode.

[ixcuincle]

Have to agree with you guys, a very good episode this week. Loved seeing the return of that old guy from the "Butters Very Own" and "Ass-pen" episodes.

I didn't remember him from those episodes, but rather the Marjorine episode. "Don't go to the old Indian Burial Ground, Scotch!"

[Andrew]

Ah yes, I forgot he was in that one too.

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[benji]

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[ixcuincle]

Mediocre, boring episode. Wasn't too much to laugh at this episode other than Ghost Elvis

[el badman]

Yeah, that was certainly miles away from the previous episode. There was probably a few references that I didn't get, but I wasn't too thrilled about that one overall.

[Oznogrd]

seems like matt or trey went to hawaii and got mad at tourists pretending they lived there because they come for 2 weeks 1 time a year. Wasnt all that funny though. Probably hilarious to Hawaiians.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I'd agree with the mediocre label. It was alright, Ghost Elvis and Kenny's letter writing were some of the better jokes, but it felt like another episode where they stretched the main premise/joke/commentary a little too thin. I'd figured that some of the references may have been lost on viewers outside the States like myself and that while I did get the joke, it was probably funnier to Americans, but judging by your reactions I guess not.

[benji]

If it was anyone other than Butters, probably would have hated it.

Except for Kenny's, excuse me, Kenneth's letters.

It wasn't really an American centric joke, you can change Hawaii to any place where a bunch of rich white tourists eventually move to believing they understand the culture and thus are now "natives" of said location. I'm sure there's places like that in Aussieland.

[Andrew]

That's what I figured and how I related to it, but I thought there might've been something else on top of that.

[ixcuincle]

Better episode this week with the Halloween episode. Good Shining parody pointing out the decline of Blockbuster

[benji]

Great episode.

[el badman]

I liked it too, great handling of both the Blockbusters and iPad themes.

[Andrew]

I liked it better than last week's episode too. At first the obvious jokes about video stores being outdated were a little annoying and their self-awareness of it wasn't really doing it for me; had the episode continued in that vein, I think it would have worn very thin about halfway through. Once the Shining parody got into full swing though, the episode picked up and the iPad/Face Time stuff with the kids all worked. Not an instant classic in my view, but quite good.

[ixcuincle]

I liked that latest episode. Good commentary on cheating in sports and the prevalence of "cause" wristbands

[Andrew]

Me too. I thought it was a great episode, one of the best of the season. The art shift during the Dr Seuss references was quite well done, a good blend of the two styles.

[ixcuincle]

Good episode to end the season.

A Scause for Applause
Obama wins!
Insecurity
A nightmare on Face Time
Sarcastabar
Raising the Bar
Going Native

[Moz]

that part with Butters at the hospital reminds me of this scene

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[Andrew]

I did cringe a bit at the prospect of Cartman Scheme/Cartman vs Kyle Part 87,629, but it was a good episode to end the season on, managing to tie together references to the election and Disney's acquisition of Star Wars in a funny and entertaining story. Mickey Mouse making another appearance was a highlight and the conclusion they came to at the end of the episode - that the integrity of films like Star Wars matters more than integrity in politics - certainly raised a smirk.

My rankings for the whole season:

1. Faith Hilling
2. A Scause for Applause
3. Reverse Cowgirl
4. Cash For Gold
5. I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining
6. Insecurity
7. Obama Wins!
8. Butterballs
9. A Nightmare on Face Time
10. Sarcastaball
11. Raising the Bar
12. Going Native
13. Jewpacabra
14. Cartman Finds Love

Pretty good season on the whole, a few I didn't care for too much but enjoyable on the whole. I think it's fair to say the show is past its prime at this point but it's in that phase where it's still quite good; the seasons are a little uneven with a few more ho-hum episodes than when the show was really cooking, but a long way from rock bottom and still producing some episodes that can be compared favourably to the best of the best.

[Its_asdf]

I agree. Every episode from the previous seasons were absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure if the style of the show has grown weary for me or if they're just not as entertaining any more but I don't feel that this season was as good as the previous ones. Still one of the better cartoons out there though.

[Andrew]

I think that it is just the fact that it's been running for 237 episodes now, so the chances of them treading familiar ground are high and when they do try something new, it doesn't necessarily work. I do think it's in that immediate post-classic phase though, where the show has peaked as a series but individual episodes can still be great and in some cases rated up there with the best.

[benji]

Start of next season delayed, season shortened by four episodes:

But “South Park,” which generally has been produced in two batches of seven episodes for a total of 14 every year, will be cut back to a single run of 10 episodes, beginning on Sept. 25.

“Why did we do seven and seven to begin with?” Mr. Stone said. “We just sort of made that up. And we are switching to 10 for the same reason. It just sounded like a good number, and we won’t break up the year so we can more easily do other stuff.”

The change sounds casually tossed off, but there is nothing unformed about the thinking that drives their choices.

“There is no appointment viewing anymore,” Mr. Stone said.

“In our first season, you had to show up on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. on the comedy channel to catch the show. Now, I don’t even know where or how people watch our show. We sort of don’t really care about ratings. It’s more important to come up with work that will add to the library in a way that we’re proud of and will make people want to catch the show wherever they want to.”